Overview
Napoli regained their form with an impressive 3-1 victory over Inter Milan, ending their opponent's streak of 7 consecutive wins last weekend.
Although somewhat lucky, the reigning Serie A champions showed their superior class when the 3 stars in the midfield took turns speaking out. Kevin De Bruyne opened the scoring from the penalty spot, before Scott McTominay and Andre-Frank Zambo Anguissa scored two beautiful goals in the second half to decide the match.
Although Inter created many opportunities and scored from the penalty spot, Napoli still maintained the victory. This is a sweet release for coach Antonio Conte against his former team.
After two disappointing away games against Torino and PSV Eindhoven, Napoli extended their unbeaten run at home in Serie A to 16, and also won the top spot from AC Milan. Now, Conte and his team will focus on defending their position when traveling to Lecce in the middle of this week.
Lecce are facing a huge challenge when hosting Napoli - the team they have lost to all 5 of their most recent home matches. While Antonio Conte's team aims to consolidate their position at the top of Serie A, Lecce is struggling in the relegation battle with only 6 points after 8 rounds.
In the most recent match, Lecce fell 2-3 to Udinese despite a performance full of effort with a beautiful goal by Medon Berisha and a late goal by Konan N'Dri. This defeat not only ended a 3-match unbeaten streak, but also exposed the weakness in the defense of the home team via del Mare.
With only 3 goals and 2 points after 4 home matches this season, Eusebio Di Francesco's team will hardly create a surprise against a strongly reviving Napoli and full of desire to defend the top spot.
Personnel situation
Napoli continues to face a power crisis when losing De Bruyne due to a muscle injury right after the penalty goal. This injury extends the absentees list that already included Romelu Lukaku, Rasmus Hojlund, Amir Rrahmani, Stanislav lobotka and goalkeeper Alex Meret.
Vanja Milinkovic-Savic will start, while Lorenzo Lucca could be given a chance to play after David Neres temporarily took on the role of "false 9" in the previous match.
On the home side, Lecce also had difficulty as Filip Marchwinski and Gaby Jean could not return, but Riccardo Sottil could be in time to join the bench.
Coach Eusebio Di Francesco is considering between young talent Francesco Camarda and striker Nikola Stulic for the starting position.
Expected lineup:
Lecce: Falcone, Veiga, Gaspar, Gabriel, Gallo, Coulibaly, Ramadani, Berisha, pierotti, Stulic, Morente.
Napoli: Milinkovic-Savic, Di Lorenzo, Beukema, Jesus, Spinazzola, Gilmour, Politano, Anguissa, McTominay, Neres, Lucca.
The match between Lecce and Napoli takes place at 0:30 am on October 29 (Vietnam time).
